Scott Bundgaard pleads no contest in freeway altercation

Sen. Scott Bundgaard's run-in with the law that began with a February freeway fracas with his girlfriend came to a quiet end with a plea agreement in a Phoenix Municipal Court on Tuesday morning.

That is, it's a quiet end if Bundgaard follows court instructions as part of that agreement. Otherwise, he goes to jail. And though Bundgaard's legal problems may be winding down, his political problems may be heating up with a Senate ethics inquiry.

Bundgaard and his attorney, James Austin Woods, slipped into a courtroom Tuesday - a day before today's scheduled court appearance - and pleaded no contest to misdemeanor endangerment stemming from the fight with his then-girlfriend, Aubry Ballard. A domestic-violence count that he faced was dismissed.

Municipal Judge Louis Frank Dominguez ordered Bundgaard to complete a domestic-violence diversion program within a year or face jail and probation.

"I'm not surprised that Scott took this plea," Ballard said. "Between the long line of witnesses who corroborated the facts I related to the Phoenix police and his documented, years-long pattern of abusive behavior toward women, a trial surely would have ended with a guilty verdict."

The political fallout from the plea is uncertain. Senate Democrats are expected to call for an ethics investigation into the domestic-violence incident, and Senate Ethics Chairman Ron Gould, R-Lake Havasu City, said he plans to move forward with a hearing if they do.

Gould dismissed an earlier complaint filed in March by Sen. Leah Landrum Taylor, D-Phoenix, saying he didn't want Senate proceedings to get in the way of the criminal case. Now that the case is settled, he said, an ethics inquiry is appropriate.

"I'm not inclined to dismiss it," Gould said. "I think we need to take a look at it, provided that somebody files the complaint."

The night of the Feb. 25 incident, police answered calls that a man and a woman were having a violent altercation beside a car stopped by the freeway median. Police arrested Bundgaard's girlfriend, Ballard, and she spent the night in jail. But the senator invoked legislative immunity from arrest and was released at the scene.

The next morning, Ballard was released, and the case against her was dismissed. At the time, it appeared Bundgaard would face no charges. The incident might have ended there, with Bundgaard proclaiming that he'd done nothing wrong and Ballard wanting the whole thing to go away.

But the case didn't end there. City prosecutors asked police to investigate the incident more closely, Chief Prosecutor Aaron Carreon-Ainsa said.

"There was no special treatment for (Bundgaard) in this case," Carreon-Ainsa said. "We treated this defendant the way we treat every other similarly situated defendant. Early on, this office asked for more investigation into the case."

An inquiry revealed that four eyewitnesses backed up Ballard's version of the scuffle along the median of Arizona 51. She alleged that Bundgaard struck her across the chest while he was driving and that when they were stopped, he yanked her from his car and threw her to the ground.

"When we got that information, we filed charges," Carreon-Ainsa said.

Bundgaard faced two misdemeanor domestic-violence charges. Had he been found guilty, it could have meant jail time, significant probation, having to go through a diversion program and jail costs.

The lawmaker predicted he would be exonerated of all charges, but his Senate colleagues were not convinced. The fallout over the scandal cost Bundgaard his position as Senate majority leader.

When the case reached court Monday, Woods told Dominguez that Bundgaard was near an agreement with prosecutors over a no-contest plea. Dominguez set a court date for 10 a.m. today. But Bundgaard and Woods were at the prosecutor's office early Tuesday, eager "to get this thing resolved," Woods said.

Carreon-Ainsa said suggestions "are not right" that Bundgaard had been allowed to avoid the glare of media scrutiny by avoiding the scheduled hearing and getting a quick and quiet resolution Tuesday.

"We left court yesterday hoping we could finish the deal. We came back together today, we signed the papers this morning and presented them to the court," Carreon-Ainsa said.

"The defense lawyer told the judge he'd like to do it now so the deal doesn't fall apart, and we figured a bird in the hand was good. Why stand in the way of an early disposition of the case?"

When the hasty court appearance was over, Bundgaard hurried out of the building without speaking to reporters.

"We're satisfied with the outcome," Woods said. "Scott has a year to complete the diversion program, and when he does, the case is dismissed. This has been a terrible ordeal for Scott. He is just glad it's over."

Ballard said she, too, is grateful for a resolution.

"I'm grateful it finally is coming to an end and I can put this behind me and get on with my life, which has been on hold for a long time," she said.

Ballard said that she was "kept informed very well" by the prosecutor's office as the case proceeded and that she did not care "one way or the other" the punishment Bundgaard faced.